If we ever get an MLK Records Act with a review board of some type akin to the JFK Records Act and review board Vince Hughes is someone they should talk to.
Vince Hughes
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Arthur Hanes Sr.
This is a LIFE magazine photo of Arthur Hanes Sr. He was James Earl Ray's attorney for a short period of time, from shortly after Ray's capture at Heathrow airport until just before a mini-trial, that wasn't really a trial at all. Hanes announced in Birmingham, Alabama that he had been phoned by Ray's British court appointed lawyer, Michael Eugene, that Ray requested him. Ray put this request in writing. However, Ray signed the letter using the alias he had when arrested, R. G. Sneyd.
As I read Harold Weisberg's "Frame-Up," I wonder if Ray really did request Hanes at all. To me it's as fishy as Oswald's request to be represented by John Abt. Abt was well known for defending Communists and those labeled as Communist. So, if Oswald did request him it cements in the public's mind that Oswald was a Communist and probably acted alone. Here, the same thing, a man well known for his anti-civil rights background is to represent Ray and if Ray really did request him then Ray must have killed Dr. King on his own out of sheer racist hatred.
Anyway, I'll give Hanes credit for taking it seriously. Hanes did go to London, where he was denied the right to see his client. After a few days of being denied any chance to see Ray he left.
I think it is important to give as full of a biography as possible and to put people in context in the JFK and MLK assassinations. Even a casual student of these cases will see that the government and lone-nutter crowd far too often strips away the true context of who people are and why they are doing what they are doing.
So, I want to point out that Arthur Hanes, Sr. was a one time Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama in the early 1960's when the city was a focal point of the Civil Rights movement. Hanes was the boss of Eugene "Bull" Connor, the man who used dogs and high pressured water hoses on civil rights demonstrators. Hanes didn't stop Connor, he encouraged Connor.
Arthur Hanes, was a former FBI agent. Hanes said he quit the FBI because he felt he couldn’t express his feelings about the growing Communist influence in the country as an agent. So, he saw himself as more anti-Communist than Hoover. You’d be hard pressed to find someone more anti-civil rights than Hanes.
So, who really hired him? How was he paid? Who paid for his trip to London and back? When asked about this Hanes replied, “Somebody will provide, the neighbors, or some way.” Weisberg writes, “Neighbors? In Missouri State Penitentiary, perhaps?"
Time magazine noted in its June 28, 1968 issue that Hanes “In 1963, though just out of office as a bitterly anti-integration mayor, he continued to fight against Martin Luther King’s Birmingham campaign...”
As a lawyer Hanes represented Robert Chambliss, accused of bombing the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in which four young black girls were killed. Chambliss was convicted.
Hanes also defended two KKK men, Collie Leroy Wilkins, Jr. and Eugene Thomas against charges of murdering Mrs. Viola Liuzzo, a white woman. The Wilkins jury was hung, and Thomas was acquitted. Hanes again represented these same two men against federal charges that they conspired to violate Mrs. Viola Liuzzo’s rights. They were convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
But wait, it gets better, Hanes was also a one time CIA contract employee. Bay of Pigs preparations took place in Birmingham.
Weisberg devotes chapter five of "Frame-Up," to telling us something about Arthur Hanes.
So, he wasn't just some lawyer.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Dr. King's speech against the Vietnam War
I believe this speech played a part in the minds of those who already hated Dr. King that he must be killed. This speech was given on April 4, 1967, exactly a year later Dr. King was assassinated. This speech is seldom included in books that study Dr. King's life. We are usually given a version of Dr. King that concentrates on the civil rights movement in the 1960's. That Dr. King came out against the Vietnam War and that he saw a link between civil rights and the war was strongly criticized at the time.
Beyond Vietnam speech
Hear the speech here - Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence
Beyond Vietnam speech
Hear the speech here - Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence
Sunday, April 11, 2010
MLK Records Act - News - Your Help Is Needed
My friend Debra Conway of JFK Lancer has sent this out as an email. I made some minor changes to it.
I support this call to action.
Thank you,
Debra Conway,
and also on behalf of Lamar Waldron, Larry Hancock, Stuart Wexler, Joseph Backes, and Rex Bradford.
I support this call to action.
AFTER 42 YEARS, NEW LAW COULD RELEASE REMAINING KING ASSASSINATION RECORDS
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April 4, 2010, marked the 42nd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. But this year, we're finally on the verge of getting access to long-withheld records about Dr. King's assassination--and to find out which have been destroyed.
In a recent letter Senator John Kerry wrote to the head of the National Archives saying he wants to release "all records related to the...death of Dr. King, including inquiries by federal, state, and local agencies." In his letter to David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, Senator Kerry wrote,
"Dr. King challenged the conscience of my generation, and his words and legacy continue to move young Americans to action today. His love and faith is alive in the millions of Americans who volunteer each day in soup kitchens or in schools. His vision and his passion are alive in churches and on campuses when millions stand up against the injustice of discrimination or the indifference that leaves too many behind."
The goal of the new King Act is to build on the successes of the JFK Act, while avoiding its problems. There is some support in the House for holding a hearing about the new King Act that would not only identify unreleased King assassination records but would also point out JFK assassination files that have still not yet been released or that were routinely destroyed after the JFK Act was passed.
Back on January 18, 2010, a Boston Globe article entitled "US cloaks case files involving civil rights" revealed that Senator John Kerry planed to introduce a new law requiring the release of all files about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. The law will be modeled on the 1992 JFK Act.
The Globe article said that King's associate, Rep. John Lewis, will introduce the new King Act in the House. Also supporting the new King Act is Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, originally a staff member on the House Select Committee on Assassinations(HSCA).
In a recent letter Senator John Kerry wrote to the head of the National Archives saying he wants to release "all records related to the...death of Dr. King, including inquiries by federal, state, and local agencies." In his letter to David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, Senator Kerry wrote,
"Dr. King challenged the conscience of my generation, and his words and legacy continue to move young Americans to action today. His love and faith is alive in the millions of Americans who volunteer each day in soup kitchens or in schools. His vision and his passion are alive in churches and on campuses when millions stand up against the injustice of discrimination or the indifference that leaves too many behind."
The goal of the new King Act is to build on the successes of the JFK Act, while avoiding its problems. There is some support in the House for holding a hearing about the new King Act that would not only identify unreleased King assassination records but would also point out JFK assassination files that have still not yet been released or that were routinely destroyed after the JFK Act was passed.
Back on January 18, 2010, a Boston Globe article entitled "US cloaks case files involving civil rights" revealed that Senator John Kerry planed to introduce a new law requiring the release of all files about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King. The law will be modeled on the 1992 JFK Act.
The Globe article said that King's associate, Rep. John Lewis, will introduce the new King Act in the House. Also supporting the new King Act is Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, originally a staff member on the House Select Committee on Assassinations(HSCA).
Resources Many of the FBI's King assassination records (known as the MURKIN files) have been released over the years, and can be seen on the Mary Ferrell Foundation website. But some of those files were withheld from the HSCA, and others talk about investigations and interviews that have never been released. Mary Ferrell Foundation MLK Page |
| What You Can Do Now The most important thing you can do to get all the files released is to help get members of Congress to co-sponsor the new Martin Luther King Records Act. The more co-sponsors the King Act has, the more quickly a hearing can be held and the new law passed. You can ask your Senators to contact Sen. Kerry, and your Representative to contact Rep. Lewis, to express their willingness to co-sponsor the new legislation. This is an election year for all of the House and many in the Senate, and it's hard to think of any legitimate reason a member of Congress or any Senator would not want to see all the King assassination files released. While many of us don't always agree on exactly who killed JFK and Dr. King, we believe everybody wants to see the King assassination files released and for Congress to hold a hearing about why so many JFK and MLK assassination files (and tapes) remain secret. Please take a few minutes to write to your member of Congress a short, polite letter or email including the idea that you want the 1992 JFK Act fully enforced and help to get both JFK and MLK assassination files released. The more co-sponsors the MLK Records Act gets, the better, so please copy this to anyone you think might be helpful. If you'd like to get the remaining JFK assassination files released before the year 2017, and the congressional King assassination records before 2029, you can find and contact your members of Congress by following this link to http://www.vote-smart.org. |
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Remember the Dream...
Senator Kerry concluded his letter to the National Archives by writing, "One of the best ways to honor the memory of Dr. King is to ensure that future generations will be able to learn from this incredible leader. I hope you will join me in this very important effort: to preserve these precious records relating to the life and death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr."
Thank you,
Debra Conway,
and also on behalf of Lamar Waldron, Larry Hancock, Stuart Wexler, Joseph Backes, and Rex Bradford.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Don't Buy This Book - Don't Waste Your Time - Don't Waste Your Money
Starred Review. The counterpoint between two driven men—one by a quest for justice, the other by an atavistic hatred—propels this engrossing study of the King assassination. Sides, author of the bestselling Ghost Solders, shows us a King all but consumed by the flagging civil rights movement in 1968 and burdened by presentiments of death. Pursuing him is escaped convict James Earl Ray, whose feckless life finds a belated, desperate purpose, perhaps stimulated by George Wallace's presidential campaign, in killing the civil rights leader. A third main character is the FBI, which turns on a dime from its long-standing harassment of King to a massive investigation into his murder; in Sides's telling, the Bureau's transoceanic hunt for Ray is one of history's great police procedurals. Sides's novelistic treatment registers Ray as a man so nondescript his own sister could barely remember him (the author refers to him by his shifting aliases to emphasize the shallowness of his identity). The result is a tragedy more compelling than the grandest conspiracy theory: the most significant of lives cut short by the hollowest of men.
"...(the author refers to him by his shifting aliases to emphasize the shallowness of his identity.)"
Are you kidding? Shallowness of his identity? Where do these lone nut, pro-official story nutcases come up with these ridiculous phrases? Don't you think he just might be using an aliases because he's an escaped convict accused of murder? What an idiot! It's really misdirection. He wants to steer you away from the mystery of the Canadian aliases Ray used because they are the key to the fact that he had help, that he was given the names of real men, that there was a conspiracy.
One of the best books to use as a beginner's guide to the case
This book by the late great Prof. Phil Melanson, though out of print, is arguably the best book to use to start researching this case.
Hello
Hello, and welcome to a new blog, "Justice for King." My hope is that this blog will help in the creation of a MLK Records Act. The MLK Records Act should be based upon the JFK Records Act. The MLK Records Act should not only declassify and release to the public records and artifacts relating to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King jr., but also gather physical evidence and compel testimony of witnesses to the assassination, and especially of those involved in the investigations of the crime.
The bulk of federal records on the case come from the records of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) that investigated the case in the 1970's. Other records are in the possession of the FBI, CIA and other American intelligence agencies. There are also records from the Memphis Police Department and Shelby County, Tennessee to acquire. I shall attempt to compile a detailed but by no means complete list of where investigators should look for MLK records.
Records from foreign countries should be pursued. James Earl Ray spent some time in Canada in the cities of Montreal and Toronto. All Records relating to his Canadian passport under the false name "Mr. Ramon George Sneya," should be acquired. I believe Ray traveled on this passport to England and then onto Lisbon, Portugal where on May 16, 1968 he turned it in to the Canadian embassy in Portugal because of a spelling mistake. The last name was supposed to be Sneyd. All agencies and personnel from Canada, Great Britain and Portugal should be asked to search for and turn over records relating to Ray's travel.
The Canadian Broadcasting Company has investigated the King case over the years. They and all media outlets both domestic and foreign should be asked to turn over all records, films, photographs, and notes regardless of what media they were originally created on or now stored on of their journalists who have examined the case. At the very least copies of them should be requested.
It is Ray's time in Canada that is the key to unlocking the conspiracy, and I do believe there was a conspiracy.
The bulk of federal records on the case come from the records of the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) that investigated the case in the 1970's. Other records are in the possession of the FBI, CIA and other American intelligence agencies. There are also records from the Memphis Police Department and Shelby County, Tennessee to acquire. I shall attempt to compile a detailed but by no means complete list of where investigators should look for MLK records.
Records from foreign countries should be pursued. James Earl Ray spent some time in Canada in the cities of Montreal and Toronto. All Records relating to his Canadian passport under the false name "Mr. Ramon George Sneya," should be acquired. I believe Ray traveled on this passport to England and then onto Lisbon, Portugal where on May 16, 1968 he turned it in to the Canadian embassy in Portugal because of a spelling mistake. The last name was supposed to be Sneyd. All agencies and personnel from Canada, Great Britain and Portugal should be asked to search for and turn over records relating to Ray's travel.
The Canadian Broadcasting Company has investigated the King case over the years. They and all media outlets both domestic and foreign should be asked to turn over all records, films, photographs, and notes regardless of what media they were originally created on or now stored on of their journalists who have examined the case. At the very least copies of them should be requested.
It is Ray's time in Canada that is the key to unlocking the conspiracy, and I do believe there was a conspiracy.
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